n
the pangs of destitution. But as long as, in our legislation, due
weight shall be given to this principle, no man will be forced to bewail
the gift of life in hopeless want of the necessaries of life.

Englishmen have, therefore, by the progress of civilisation among them,
been placed in circumstances more favourable to piety and resignation to
the divine will, than the inhabitants of other countries, where a like
provision has not been established. And as Providence, in this care of
our countrymen, acts through a human medium, the objects of that care
must, in like manner, be more inclined towards a grateful love of their
fellow-men. Thus, also, do stronger ties attach the people to their
country, whether while they tread its soil, or, at a distance, think of
their native Land as an indulgent parent, to whose arms even they who
have been imprudent and undeserving may, like the prodigal son, betake
themselves, without fear of being rejected.

Such is the view of the case that would first present itself to a
reflective mind; and it is in vain to show, by appeals to experience, in
contrast with this view, that provisions founded upon the principle have
promoted profaneness of life, and dispositions the reverse of
philanthropic, by spreading idleness, selfishness, and rapacity: for
these evils have arisen, not as an inevitable consequence of the
principle, but for want of judgment in framing laws based upon it; and,
above all, from faults in the mode of administering the law. The
mischief that has grown to such a height from granting relief in cases
where proper vigilance would have shewn that it was not required, or in
bestowing it in undue measure, will be urged by no truly enlightened
statesman, as a sufficient reason for banishing the principle itself
from legislation.

Let us recur to the miserable states of consciousness that it precludes.

There is a story told, by a traveller in Spain, of a female who, by a
sudden shock of domestic calamity, was driven out of her senses, and
ever after looked up incessantly to the sky, feeling that her
fellow-creatures could do nothing for her relief. Can there be
Englishmen who, with a good end in view, would, upon system, expose
their brother Englishmen to a like necessity of looking upwards only; or
downwards to the earth, after it shall contain no spot where the
destitute can demand, by civil right, what by right of nature they are
entitled to?

Suppose the objects of o